A known type of electrical terminal applicator includes an applicator ram drivable by a press ram through a working stroke towards, and a return stroke away from, a crimping anvil. The applicator ram has crimping die means for cooperation with the anvil to crimp at least a portion of an electrical terminal onto an electrical wire during each working stroke of the applicator ram. Often, the crimping die means include a first crimping die for crimping a first portion of the terminal onto a conductive core of an insulated electrical wire, and a second crimping die for crimping a second portion of the terminal onto the insulation of the wire. Various adjusting plates are provided for adjusting one of the crimping dies axially of the applicator ram as well as to adjust the shut height of the crimping die means.
Such electrical terminal applicators are often used with crimpable terminals that have a closed barrel and are secured together by some type of carrier such as thin plastic tape, continuously molded plastic or even metal strips. Such carriers can be fed to the crimping die means, and the leading terminal on the carrier is crimped onto a wire after which it is removed from the carrier. The terminal applicator is operated in a cyclical manner. After each crimping cycle and a succeeding uncrimped terminal is fed to the location of the crimping die means, a wire is fed to the located terminal, and this often is done in an automated machine. Therefore, if the located terminal is not precisely in position for receiving the electrical wire, problems can be encountered. For instance, the wire might be improperly inserted into the terminal, resulting in an ineffective or defective crimped connection. Still worse, a wire may substantially miss an improperly located terminal and cause jamming or damage to the crimping dies, anvil means or other components of the applicator.
A solution to the problem of improperly located terminals is to employ what is called a "split cycle press." In such presses, the press ram is moved through a first portion of its stroke a sufficient distance to have the crimping die means engage and locate but not crimp a terminal. A wire is then inserted into the terminal. The press ram then is moved through a second or complete portion of its stroke to effect crimping of the terminal onto the electrical wire. Such split cycle presses are considerably more expensive than standard presses which are widely used in the field with electrical terminal applicators. It would be an expensive proposition to replace all standard presses which are used with electrical terminal applicators with more expensive split cycle presses.
This invention is directed to providing a system directly on an electrical terminal applicator which is effective to provide a split cycle operation for the crimping die means of the applicator. Since such applicators often are interchangeable in presses, with or without some modifications, an applicator with a split cycle system would save considerable expenses in converting or replacing an entire standard press.